Man Held in Deaths of Lover, Roommate

A 24-year-old Panorama City man has been arrested in connection with the killing of two 61-year-old men, including a former Greek Orthodox priest with whom he was having an affair, police said Friday.

On Sunday, Tu Luong Hua allegedly shot to death Stanley Adamakis -- a former cleric who served prison time for molesting South Bay-area boys more than a decade ago -- in the parking lot of Adamakis’ apartment complex in Panorama City, police and prosecutors said.

Later that same day, Los Angeles police detectives found the body of Yu Huynh, Hua’s former brother-in-law, in the Panorama City home Huynh and Hua shared.

Both victims died of multiple gunshot wounds fired from an assault rifle, police said, adding that investigators recovered a weapon.

Hua, who is being held without bail, was charged this week with two counts of murder and the special circumstances of lying in wait for Adamakis and committing multiple murders. Prosecutors have not decided whether to seek the death penalty.

The motive for the Huynh killing is unclear, but investigators said the killing of Adamakis may be related to an ongoing relationship between him and Hua.

“We believe there may have been a sexual relationship between [Adamakis and Hua] ... and it may have played a role in the motive,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Larry Diamond, who filed the charges.

A law enforcement source said that the relationship between the two men dates back at least five years, beginning about the time Adamakis was released from state prison in November 1997. He served seven years of a nine-year sentence.

Adamakis was once a popular South Bay clergyman who was on probation for molesting two brothers when he went to work as a counselor at St. Cross by the Sea Episcopal Church in Hermosa Beach.

Adamakis was house-sitting at a parishioner’s home in August 1990 when he crawled into a bed and fondled a 16-year-old boy who had arrived home before his parents.

Several months later, Adamakis brought beer to another parishioner’s home where three teenage boys were having a sleepover, police said. He got in a bed and began to caress one of the guests, an 18-year-old who was not a member of the church, police said.

Adamakis was sentenced to prison in 1990 after his conviction on charges of sexual battery and child molestation.